Douglas was born Gerald Rubenstein in Chelsea, Massachusetts to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Raised in Chelsea, Massachusetts, he attended Brandeis University in pursuit of an economics degree. Eight months into law school in Boston, he gave up the books and began auditioning for acting roles. However, his lack of training frustrated him, and he eventually moved to California. There he met his first wife, Arlene Martel, who had a young son by the name of Adam Palmer. Douglas went on to have two children with Ms. Martel, Avra Douglas and Jod Douglas.
Personal life
Settling in the San Fernando Valley, Douglas sold insurance by day and took acting classes at night. Although he still struggled, he received encouragement after appearing in the play John Brown's Body. For several years, Douglas appeared on such TV shows as and The Feather and Father Gang, often portraying villains. At the same time, Martel decided to move herself and their two children, Avra and Jod, to Carmel. They eventually divorced. He remarried, to Kymberly Bankier, whom he met at a Muscular Dystrophy Association event. They have been married since April 6, 1985, and have a son, Hunter.
Later years
In March 2006, after 25 years on the show, Douglas departed The Young and The Restless in a storyline-dictated exit revolving around his character's involvement in the Tom Fisher murder case. Douglas claims that former headwriter of The Young and The RestlessLynn Marie Latham killed his character off because she could not understand why a man would run a cosmetics company. He continued to recur on the show for the next few months and was put back on contract with the show in June to play his now-deceased character's ghost. He left the show for good on August 18, but continues to make appearances once in a while. In March 2008 he began appearing as a new character Alistair Wallingford, a drunken hack actor involved in a gaslighting plot, but was written out a few months later. In 2007, Douglas released a CD, The Best Is Yet to Come, a collection of jazz standards, and has performed around the United States and Canada.
